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DEMOCRACY  AND  EFFICIENCY 


AN  ADDRESS 

By 

HON.  WILLIAM   KENT 

AT  HARVARD  UNIVERSITY 
MARCH  29,  1912 


PRESENTED  BY  MR.  OWEN 
OcTOBBR  1,  1913. — Ordered  to  be  printed 


WASHINGTON 
1913 


-< 


DEMOCRACY  AND  EFFICIENCY. 


Eecent  days  of  the  world  have  brought  with  them  one  thing  that 
is  new — the  realizing  sense,  the  ideal,  of  democracy.     As   far   as 
anatomy  is  concerned,  we  of  to-day  do  not  differ  much  in  brain 
capacity  from  a  fossil  skull  recently  discovered  and  which  is  be- 
•lieved  by  geologists  to  be  contemporary  with  the  Neanderthal  Negroid 
•type  of  man,  who  before  this  discovery  was  regarded  as  our  ancestor. 
No  one  knows  how  far  back  dates  the  human  brain  adequate  for 
-.progress.     We  can  not  show  individuals  or  individual  attainment 
•higher  than  the  man  who  existed  in  ancient  Athens.     We  can  not 
•show  philosophy  or  art  higher  than  were  produced  3,000  years  ago. 
'We  are  forced  to  look  to  society  and  social  relationship,  to  human  A 
kindliness  and  charity  suggested  by  Christian  faith  for  developmentxT 
•from  this  time  henceforward.     If  this  democratic  tendency  promisesT 
•anything  at  all,  it  is  that  more  people  may  aspire  with  reasonable' 
-hope  for  such  conditions  of  life  as  may  permit  their  fuller  develop- 
ment.    This  is  the  promise  of  our  day,  and  is  found  in  the  political 
creed  to  which  our  Nation  gives  lip  service  at  least.     Better  condi- 
tions depend  upon  our  sane  and  timely  answers  to  the  unending  inter-  ; 
rogations  as  to  the  relative  importance  of  the  individual  and  of  ' 
•society — the  position  of  the  individual  in  society. 

The  earlier  evolution  of  free  government  came  through  the  revolt 
of  a  select  few  against  tyrants.  This  was  the  story  down  through 
the  days  of  Magna  Charta  and  through  our  Revolutionary  War.  It 
'happened  that  the  dominant  classes  of  our  people  in  colonial  times 
were  selected  men  who,  being  practically  equal  in  education  and 
financial  status,  while  preaching  the  doctrines  of  human  liberty,  ap- 
plied those  doctrines  to  themselves  but  not  to  their  servants  nor  to 
those  whom  they  deemed  their  inferiors,  just  as  they  applied  the 
doctrine  of  religious  freedom  to  themselves  and  denied  it  to  Quakers 
and  Catholics. 

Step  by  step  since  that  time  we  have  been  working  toward  the 
ideals  which  they  professed  and  expressed  in  the  great  declaration 
and  preamble,  but  which  they  did  not  entirely  realize. 

In  the  world's  history  there  have  been  found  many  forms  of  gov- 
ernment and  many  variations.  In  general  terms  they  may  be  classi- 
fied as  tyranny,  oligarchy,  and  democracy.  Up  to  the  present  time 
the  efficiency  of  these  forms  of  government  have  been  in  inverse 
ratio  of  the  numbers  doing  the  governing,  and  it  is  the  present  ineffi- 
ciency of  democracy  that  particularly  appeals  to  the  friends  of  other 
systems. 


42442a 


4  PSMOOSAOY.  ANB  S^FFIOIENOY. 

No  one  can  doubt  but  that  tyranny  may  be  an  ideal  form  of  effi- 
cient government,  if  two  postulates  be  granted  :|First,  a  successive 
line  of  really  efficient  tyrants;  second,  a  guaranty  iHat  their  efficiency 
V  be  directed  toward  the  common  good.  ^  The  failure  of  either  of  these 
to  eventuate  has  caused  the  fejecibion  of  tyranny  by  all  civilized 
nations. 

To  a  lesser  degree  the  same  thing  is  true  of  the  rule  of  an  oligarchy, 
whether  military  or  plutocratic.  The  efficiency  generated  will  be 
used  in  the  interest  of  the  governing  class,  just  as  under  trusts  and 
monopolies  the  efficiency  of  production  is  absorbed  by  the  corpora- 
tions. The  man  that  works  on  the  sewer  will  receive  no  considera- 
tion from  an  oligarchy  or  tyranny,  whether  political  or  industrial. 

It  does  not  particularly  matter  by  what  form  of  choice  the  rulers 
are  selected.  A  despotism  may  be  hereditary  or  elective,  as  may  an 
oligarchy. 

Our  American  democracy  has  thus  far  been  incoherently  operated 
and,  as  money  is  the  sign  of  coherent  power,  it  is  largely  plutocratic 
in  its  tendencies.  This  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  for  wealth  means 
comfort  and  leisure  and  the  things  that  men  most  desire,  if  not  given 
to  ideals.  If  creature  comforts  and  a  measure  of  independence  may 
be  obtained  through  governmental  agencies,  there  is  naturally  a 
strong  pressure  to  secure  them  in  that  way. 

THE  FUNDAMENTAL  CONCEPT  OF  DEMOCRACY. 

In  spealring  of  woman's  suffrage  a  very  intelligent  and  high- 
minded  man  recently  said  that  he  saw  no  reason  why  women  should 
vote,  that  he  believed  they  had  plenty  of  other  duties  to  perform, 
that  it  would  appear  that  there  might  be  a  proper  "  division  of  labor  " 
between  the  sexes  as  concerned  politics.  This  typical  illustration 
^Jiows  an  entire  ignorance  of  the  fundamental  idea  of  democracy. 
There  can  no  more  he  a  ''division  of  labor  "  in  exercising  the  functiom 
of  self-government  than  there  can  he  a  division  of  labor  in  tJcose 
necessary  bodily  functions  of  breathingy  digestion^  or  the  action  of 
the  heart. 

In  a  sense  all  government  is  objectionable  from  the  standpoint  of 
^    the  individual.     It  is  objectionable  because  it  means  restraint,  and 
the  form  this  restraint  shall  take  is  just  as  much  a  choice  of  evils  as 
we  make  when  we  choose  between  the  spoils  system,  with  its  greater 
hypothetical  efficiency,   and  the  merit  system,   with  its   necessary 
elimination  of  executive  ability,  or  when  we  choose  between  a  theo- 
retically perfect  medium  of  exchange  in  irredeemable  paper  money 
or  the  wasteful  and  extravagant  gold  standard,  or  when  we  choose 
between  privately  owned  and  operated  public  utilities,  supposedly 
free  from  politics,  and  the  same  enterprises  owned  and  operated  by 
the  public  and  for  the  public,  with  the  waste  and  ineffxciency  that 
accompany  scattered  and  sporadic  management.     And  yet,  in  the 
//public  interest,  we  are  obliged  to  choose  the  merit  system,  the  gold 
Iv/standard,  and,  I  believe,  shall  be  obliged  to  choose  publicly  owned 
r^^  and  operated  utilities  as  the  lesser  evil  or  as  the  greater  good.     We 
/ytmcst  shift  our  viewpoint  from  the  narrow  confines  and  the  brief  life 
of  the  individual  to  the  breadth  and  duration  of  society  before  we 
eon  think  even  in  terms  of  the  individuxd.. 


KBMOCBACY  AND  EFFICIENCY.  6 

It  has  long  been  a  saying,  and  it  was  part  of  Jefferson's  creed, 
that  the  less  government  we  could  have  the  better  for  us;  that  the 
least-governed  people  are  the  best-governed  people.  And  yet,  with  all 
the  obvious  truth  of  this  statement,  we  find  ourselves  apparently 
drifting  away  from  putting  it  in  practice.  There  is  an  increasing 
demand-JoT-  f^ontrol  of_th^  ai^.tions.x^f  mftn^  that  their^ctivities  bS 
exercised  for,  and  in  the  intp,yefit^  of  gnmAty ^We  can  not  under- 
stand this  tendency  unless  we  realize  that  while  government  is  re- 
straint, restraint  is  not  alone  supplied  by  statutory  enactment  or  by 
the  police  power.  The  power  of  wealth  can  be  used  to  control  and 
i  restrain  the  individual  to  as  great  a  degree  as  can  military  power 
under  a  tyrant.  With  this  understanding  of  the  meaning  of  restraint, 
we  see  that  under  a  democracy  we  may  be  compelled  to  restrain  by 
public  action  under  law  individuals  or  corporations  to  the  end  of 
preventing  their  private  restraint  of  others.  We  must  shift,  in  other 
words,  from  private  restraint  to  public  restraint.  Restraint  ly 
government  is  known  as  enforcement  of  law.  Restrairin5y~mdivid-\ 
uals  is  known  as  special  privilege.  But  restraint  by  government  \ 
agencies  under  democracy  is  inexcusable  except  as  it  is  exercised  for  \ 
the  general  welfare.  We  can  never  foresee  how  far  it  must  be  ex- 
ercised. We  c^n  not  f oretel^  the  extent  of  legal  interference  with  what 
has  loosely  been  called  private  business,  nor  can  we  define  what  con- 
stitutes private  business.  Business  and  commerce  imply  social  rela- 
tions, and  must  inevitably  be  governed  by  social  rules  or  social  law. 
In  the  broad  sense  there  can  be  no  such  thing  as  private  business, 
it  is  all  a  changing,  relative  matter.  When  we  ignore  the  facts  of 
change  ajidNrelativity_a^^  and  our 

(iescencliints  to  contracts  we  have  made  we  are  courting  revolution., 
^The  Dartmouth  College  decision,  in  which  the  Supreme  Court 
denied  the  right  of  the  sovereign  State  to  alter  or  abridge  an  act  once 
passed,  was  an  extreme  case  of  dead-hand  control.  Previously  in  the 
case  of  Fletcher  v.  Peck,  the  Supreme  Court  had  validated  title  to 
35,000,000  acre^  of  land,  which  was  secured  from  the  Legislature  of 
Georgia  by  proved  corruption  and  bribery,  and  thus  was  established 
the  doctrine  that  grants  once  made,  even  though  bribery  and  fraud  be 
used,  are  good  for  all  time,  and  privilege  is  linked  to  the  law  beyond 
the  possibility  of  destruction. 

The  moral  is  plain.  Get  what  you  can  in  any  way  that  is  neces-, 
sary  and  rely  on  the  law  and  the  courts  to  secure  your  tenure.  ThuS|' 
the  forests  and  water  powers,  the  ore,  and  the  coal  have  passed  into 
private  hands  in  perpetuity,  and  perpetuity  is  so  long  a  time  that  it 
is  impudent  to  mention  it. 

CONTROL  THROUGH  TAXATION. 

But  failing  other  means  of  control  or  other  means  of  resumption 
by  the  people,  there  rests,  as  yet  safe  from  the  courts,  the  power  of 
taxation — the  primal  right  of  sovereignty,  the  beginning  of  gov- 
ernment of  every  sort,  and  the  last  final  word  in  control.  The  pro- 
tection of  this  power  and  its  utilization  in  the  interests  of  society 
may  yet  prove  to  be  the  line  of  least  resistance  in  abolishing 
special  privilege  and  restoring  equality, of  industrial  opportunity— 
a  task- all  agree, Jnust  ba^acgoxaplished  if  democracy  and  the  fruits 


DBMOOBAOY  AND  BPPTCIENOT. 


/o 


0, 


ofdeniocracv  are  not^o^be^rushed  under  the  iroii^heel_  of  financial 
_SigarcIiyr 

It  is  in  no  glib  sense  that  we  say  that  democracj  is  an  experiment. 
The  problems  of  democratic  efficiency  have  never  been  worked  out. 
We  know  that  it  is  an  experijriQnt  at  the  present  time,  but  we  also 
know  that  the  experiment  must  be  made  to  succeed  if  the  human  race 
is  to  be  worth  while,  for  we  are  social  beings  and  our  brother  is  a  part 
of  ourselves,  and  there  could  never  be  life  really  worth  living  to  the 
conscientious  and  the  sensitive  except  in  the  hope  and  in  the  striving 
for  better  average  conditions.  As  clouds  return  to  the  sea,  so  must 
men  return  to  self-government. 

Kef  erring  to  the  restraint  that  the  individual  places  upon  society, 
we  have  with  us  George  F.  Baer,  who,  by  his  own  confession,  is  the 
divinely  appointed  arbiter  of  the  welfare  of  miners,  operators,  and 
consumers  of  coal.  If  his  actions  belie  his  divine  appointment,  dem- 
ocracy must  encumber  itself  with  the  regulation  of  the  production 
and  supply  of  coal,  despite  his  -partnership  with  Providence. 

The  history  of  the  trusts  is  too  well  known  to  need  much  comment. 
The  natural  resources  of  the  country  as  well  as  the  fruits  of  our  in- 
ventiveness in  labor-saving  machinery  iiave  been  absorbed  by  a  few. 
The  many  find  themselves  little  benefited  by  the  tremendous  added 
product  resultant  therefrom. 

In  the  way  of  democratic  control,  the  railways  are  being  limited  in 
issuing  stock  certificates;  their  rates  are  being  regulated  with  some 
computation  of  capital  invested.  Now  comes  Mr.  Brandeis  to  show 
how  the  Government  should  insist  that  they  handle  their  business 
with  less  waste  of  time,  of  money,  and  of  life.  In  the  meantime  they 
have  been  urged,  through  air-brake  and  other  legislation,  not  to  mur- 
der so  many  of  their  employees.  Here  is  restraint  in  the  interests  of 
democracy  carried  down  the  line.  \ 
\  In  the  matter  of  public  utilities  we  ought  to  approach  the  question 
from  the  standpoint  of  common  sense.  Transportation,  artificial 
light,  water  supplies  are  essenliaFto  all  the  people.  The  Government 
of  all  the  people  can  either  furnish  them  itself  or  license  others  to 
furnish  them.  If  private  individuals  are  licensed,  it  is  first  of  all 
necessary  that  there  should  be  the  greatest  possible  elimination  of  the 
element  of  risk,  in  order  that  charges  may  be  as  low  as  is  consistent 
with  investment.  To  consider  these  conveniences  as  private  institu- 
tions, to  be  controlled  for  private  profit,  is  a  violent  assumption  that 
can  not  be  justified  under  any  theory  of  law  or  of  public  welfare,  for, 
after  all,  what  does  a  man  own  or  how  does  he  maintain  his  title  to 
what  he  thinks  he  owns?  Follow  the  abstract  of  titles  back  to  bar- 
baric beginnings.  We  find  ourselves  in  a  region  of  anarchy  or  indi- 
vidualism, where  a  man  owned  nothing  except  what  he  could  hold  by 
main  strength.  Then  came  organized  society  specifying  that  in  its 
own  behalf  it  would  protect  the  individual  in  his  title,  and  this  be- 
came the  law.  Whenever-'the  possession  of  anything,  whether  dyna- 
mite, concealed  weapons,  poison,  or  contagious  germs,  becomes  inimi- 
cal to  society,  society  takes  upon  itself  the  right  of  search,  appropria- 
tion, quarantine,  or  vaccination.  The  same  must  forever  hold  true, 
however  much  sanctioned  by  former  usage  may  have  been  the  indi- 
vidual's possession  to  things  which  society  has  decided  have  become 
evils.  As  a  mi'^or  conclusion,  it  follows  that  the  power  to  take  away 
carries  with  it     power  to  limit  the  tenure. 


DEMOCRACY  AND  EFFICIENCY,  7 

WHO   CONSTITUTE  '' THE   MOB  "  ? 

From  the  beginning  of  history  we  have  heard  about  "the  mob." 
Aristophanes  has  much  to  say  of  it,  as  also  did  the  framers  of  our 
Constitution.     The  niQbi=a.,Yagt,  intangible,  hypathfitical  somethingy 

)rnnP  f,p  ^yfff/^T^iQ^  rPyoljj^^mij^nH^  all    mnnnPr  of  violence  !       And  yet 

ve,  the  whole  people,  are  the  moB.  It  has  been  the  boast  of  our 
Anglo-Saxon  and  Germanic  historians  that  our  efforts  thus  far  have 
not  been  vain  attempts  to  educate  ourselves  into  a  responsibility  that 

aakes  the  mob,  or  rather  most  of  us,  both  responsible  and  demo- 
cratic. The  so-called  mob,  clamoring  tor  decent  opportunity  to  live, 
is  working  for  human  advancement,  as  it  is  entitled  to  do.  //  de-_\ 
mo crqcy  makes  mAstakes^  that  is  its  privilege;  and  we^  holding  to  the 
theory  of  democracy^  sTioidd  as  fuUy  admit  the  right  of  the  people 
to  make  mistakes  as  to  muke  progress.  As  long  as  we  make  profes- 
sion of  a  helief  in  democracy  we  m/mt  clearly  carry  this  in  mind. 
Those  who  pretend  to  believe  in  democracy^  hut  at  the  same  time 
would  hedge  it  about  by  the  checks  and  balances  of  an  oligarchy^ 
Uving  or  defunct^  are  trying  to  mix  two  elements  that  can  not  inter- 
mingle. The  poioer  that  gave  the  dog  teeth  and  the  mule  his  trusty 
hind  leg  did  not  check  and  bodance  by  mAizzling  the  one  or  hobbling 
the  other.    Instead^  there  was  dcTnanded  self-control. 

The  crime  in  Virginia  in  which  a  judge  was  shot  down  in  his  court 
by  the  Allen  outlaws  has  been  vigorously  portrayed  in  cartoon  and 
comment  throughout  the  country  as  an  example  of  judicial  recall. 
The  misguided  homicides  of  the  Virginia  mountains  had,  by  their 
isolation  through  many  years,  failed  to  feel  the  touch  of  democracy 
and  were  simply  unconscious  individualists  or  anarchists.  They  be-/l 
lieved  in  aristocracy,  and,  like  all  that  held  that  theory  of  indi-j/ 
vidual  license,  they  were  quite  sure  that  they  were  the  aristocracy' 
and  were,  accordingly,  above  the  law.  No  more  and  no  less  anarchists 
were  they  than  the  masters  of  modem  finance.  No  more  and  no  less 
heedless  were  they  of  human  life  than  those  same  organizers  of 
trusts.  Had  prosecutor,  judge,  and  jury  met  their  deaths  in  a  rail- 
road wreck,  caused  by  detective  rails,  slumped  by  the  Steel  Trust,  or 
by  wretched  roadbed  or  rotten  ties  that  permitted  stock  watering 
without  investment,  it  would  have  been  regarded  by  financiers  as  an 
unfortunate  act  of  Providence. 


We  hear  continuously  of  the  danger  from  oppression  of  the  mi- 
nority by  the  majority  under  Democratic  rule.     As  Mr.  Roosevelt 
has  pointed  out,  the  oppression  that  we  object  to  in  this  country  has! 
been  the  oppression  by  the  minority  working  through  corrupt  or\ 
complicated  government. 

Jane  Addams  has  well  said  that  the  best  service  that  can  be  ren- 
dered the  world  is  to  raise  many  people  a  little.  That  counts  for  a 
vast  aggregate  of  happiness,  whereas  to  afford  exceptional  opportu- 
nities to  a  privileged  few  does  few  of  these  few  any  good,  although 
there  occasionally  may  appear  great  geniuses  and  happy  lives. 


DBMOCEAOY  AND  EFFICIENCY. 


Experimenting,  as.  it  were,  the  founders  of  the  Constitution  filled 
^'il  with  checks  and  balances,  distrustful  of  the  use  that  the  people 
/  would  make  of  the  opportunity  to  govern  themselves.  There  was 
^  little  conception  of  real  democracy.  Their  theory,  shown,  for  in- 
stance, in  providing  for  the  election  of  United  States  Senators  by 
State  legislatures  instead  of  by  the  people.  The  method  they  estab- 
lished for  selecting  Presidents  was  that  by  town  meeting  or  some 
other  process  wise  men  would  be  chosen  to  choose  wiser  men  to  choose 
a  President.  It  was  an  attenuated  system  of  representation,  and  just 
in  so  far  as  it  denied  full  democracy  in  so  far  the  system  railed,  be- 
came sordid,  and  resulted  in  something  very  different  from  expecta- 
tions. The  theory  of  presidential  electors  was  the  first  to  go  by  the 
board  without  constitutional  amendment  and  almost  without  com- 
ment. This  was  a  precursor  of  the  direct  primary.  Later  on  the 
Constitution  stumbled  over  the  slavery  issue.  No  one  who  has  read 
tlie  arguments  of  Calhoun  and  Webster  can  fail  to  realize  that  Cal- 
lioun  built  upon  the  Constitution  a  structure  of  absolute  logic,  while 
Webster  worked  out  a  sincere  but  illogical  opportunism.  Lincoln, 
'while  expressing  devotion  to  the  Constitution,  cut  through  the  knot 
by  an  unanswerable  logic  which  proved  that  whether  or  not  seces- 
sion was  constitutional,  secession,  at  any  rate,  was  anarchy  and  chaos 
in  its  ultimate  analysis  and  the  Constitution  had  to  go. 

Looking  back  to  the  history  of  development  of  our  Government,  we 
find  in  the  New  England  town  meeting  the  simplest  and  most  direct 
form  of  democracy.  It  was  a  misfortune  that  as  the  numbers  of  the 
"electorate  increased  the  town-meeting  theory  of  choosing  men  and 
deciding  upon  measures  was  lost.  The  trail  forked.  There  might 
be  either  a  triturated,  diluted  system  of  representation  or  a  system 
providing  for  direct  expression.  We  took  the  first  and  the  torong 
trail.  The  town  meeting  found  o.  degenerate  seqitence^  a  sort  of  vermi- 
form appendix^  in  the  party  caucus. 

The  rise  of  party  government,  which  Washington  foresaw  and 

deplored,  came  in  to  make  matters  worse,  and  with  it  came  the  spoils 

system,  which  reached  the  zenith  of  its  frankness  under  Jackson  as 

^..-^President.    "  To  the  victor  belong  the  spoils  "  sounded  like  a  harsh 

but  at  least  an  honest  statement,  whereas  really  it  was  a  doctrine  of 

^    incompetence  and  what  we  now  term  graft. 

Lacking  real  issues,  the  parties  became  bodies  without  souls,  en- 

\  cumberers  of  the  earth  chiefly  existing  for  the  purpose  of  favoring 

!  their  adherents  with  the  emoluments  of  public  office  and  of  public 

^  ^  spoliation,  and  working  not  for  the  benefit  of  the  country  but  for  the 

benefit  of  a  fraction  of  a  faction. 

Until  the  great  issues  of  slavery  and  secession  came  along  this 
uselessness  continued.  Then  came  the  birth  of  a  new  party  with  a 
^^al  mission  and  a  great  leadership,  a  party  which  won  the  fight  for 
^v  national  unity  and  human  rights,  and  then  proceeded  to  fatten  and 
degenerate  for  lack  of  real  tasks.  One  apparent  issue  survived,  the 
doctrine  of  a  protective  tariff,  which,  harmless  and  possibly  ex- 
cusable or  beneficial  to  begin  with,  grew  into  a  doctrine  of  special 
privilege  that  held  the  party  together  by  the  cohesive. power  of  plun- 
der, its  real  motive,  and  by  hypocritical  profession  of  a  desire  to 
better  the  cx)nditions  of  the  American  working  man. 


DEMOCRACY  AND  EFFICIENCY.  9 

A  long  war  was  waged  against  the  evil  system  of  the  spoils  of 
office,  a  fight  for  civil-service  reform  or  the  merit  system.  The  argu- 
ments for  the  merit  syst^  were,  of  course,  to  secure  a  determination 
of  the  applicant's  fitness  by  competitive  examination,  reasonable  cer- 
tainty of  tenure  in  office,  but  most  important  of  all  to  eliminate  from 
control  of  Government  machinery  those  receiving  compensation  for 
public  service  from  the  public  purse ;  to  prevent  public  servants  from 
becoming  masters.  This  was  the  first  step  toward  the  restitution  of 
popular  government. 

now  THE  PARTY  CAUCUS  W0RKia>. 

Following  this  there  came  the  movement  looking  to  direct  pri- 
maries. The  old  representative  system  had  been  seized  upon  by  the 
bosses.  It  had  to  be  operated  by  some  one,  the  everyday  voter  could 
not  spend  the  time,  so  necessity  evolved  the  boss.  The  process  of 
elimination  ran  something  like  this:  Two  or  three  men  would  get 
together  and  map  out  a  party  slate.  There  could  be  no  legal  restric- 
tion against  such  action,  and  a  slate  had  to  be  made.  Thereupon 
they  would  call  such  caucuses  as  seemed  necessary,  making  sure  that 
the  caucus  should  be  carefully  selected  and  the  chairman  should  agree 
to  the  program.  If  by  any  mischance  there  was  an  attempt  to  upset 
the  caucus,  the  chairman  was  supposed  to  be  able  to  handle  the  situ- 
ation. The  secretary  would  announce  whatever  result  he  saw  fit  as 
the  vote  of  the  caucus  and  declare  that  the  slate  delegates  had  been 
selected.  These  delegates  were  part  of  the  machinery,  but  were 
usually  ostensibly  unpledged  and  uninstructed.  There  was  no  legal 
control  over  the  caucus,  nor  was  there  ever  any  success  in  trying  to 
place  such  a  voluntary  party  assemblage  under  the  law. 

The  earlier  forms  of  primary  law  permitted  the  party  to  call  for 
an  election  of  delegates  under  the  law  if  they  so  chose,  but  the  law 
was  not  mandatory  and  was  frequently  unmvoked.  But  whether 
under  primary  law  or  not  the  uninstructed  delegates  repaired  to  a 
convention,  where  they  carried  out  their  preconcerted  program  and 
the  men  originally  selected  by  the  few  leaders,  so  called,  were  given 
their  nominations. 

THE  BIPARTISAN   MACHINE. 

Of  course  it  was  the  original  theory  that  party  rivalry  would  work 
toward  the  selecj:ion  of  the  man  who  would  most  appeal  to  the  popu- 
lar choice,  but  when  the  original  slate  makers  consisted  of  repre- 
sentatives of  both  parties,  working  for  their  own  interest  and  the 
interest  of  their  friends,  the  bipartisan  nominations  became  a  fraud 
and  a  farce.  Any  leading  politician  of  the  party  of  the  biparty 
convention  who  happened  to  be  running  for  office  could  ordinarily 
select  his  opponent  on  the  other  ticket  and,  if  he  felt  particularly 
insecure,  could  probably  arrange  to  divide  up  the  opposition  by  put- 
ting in  the  field  more  than  one  opposing  candidate. 

All  through  this  farcical  theme  ran  the  sweet  melody  of  party 
loyalty  and  high-minded  patriotism.  The  Indiana  farmers,  who 
have  been  proverbially  fond  of  investing  in  gold  bricks,  never  had 
such  reason  to  complain  of  being  buncoed  in  that  gentle  sport  as  they 
have  had  reason  to  complain  of  the  way  their  politics  have  been 
handled  under  the  pretext  of  representation. 


10  DEMOCRACY  AND  EFFICIENCY. 

RISE  OF  THE  DIRECT  PRIMARY. 

Such  development  of  representative  government  inevitably  and 
logically  drove  the  electorate  to  seek  out  a  plan  of  nomination  where- 
by the  popular  choice  could  be  registered,  and  the  next  step,  after 
civil-service  reform,  was  found  in  the  direct  primary. 

Although  the  direct  primary  has  many  forms  and  has  never  been 
worked  out  to  its  final  shape,  it  is  at  any  rate  a  law-controlled  oppor- 
tunity for  the  expression  of  individual  opinion  concerning  candidates. 
It  permits  a  man  of  self-respect  to  run  for  an  office  without  having 
compromised  his  independence  or  his  integrity  by  promises  to  those 
who  hold  the  political  power,  simply  because  they  hold  it  and  know 
how  to  exert  it.  Here  is  a  necessary  reversion  from  a  complicated  sys- 
tem of  representation  to  direct  democracy. 

Then  came  the  adoption  of  a  direct  vote  for  United  States  Senators, 
which  emancipates  the  State  legislatures  by  the  elimination  of  na- 
tional partisan  issues. 

MUNICIPAL    CORRUPTION   FORCED    THE    REFERENDUM. 

Next  in  order,  there  grew  up  a  belief  in  the  necessity  of  limiting 
the  legislative  actions  of  representative  bodies.  The  most  acute  phases 
of  corrupt  misgovemment  occurred  in  the  cities,  where  the  tremendous 
values'  of  public  utility  franchises  became  understood.  Grants  of  the 
privilege  to  furnish  transportation,  water,  artificial  light,  became 
matters  of  barter  and  sale. 

In  a  brief  experience  in  the  city  council  of  Chicago  I  saw  a  time 
when  a  few  men  could  easily  have  obtained  $60,000  apiece  had  they 
been  willing  to  shift  their  votes.  Of  course  it  was  easy  to  say  that 
no  honest  man  would  take  money  for  a  vote  on  such  a  proposition, 
but  the  pressure  is  tremendous  to  those  who  can  easily  step  from 
poverty  to  affluence  for  a  vote  which  they  would  most  likely  give  for 
nothing  if  they  had  not  stopped  to  consider  all  the  phases  of  the  sit- 
uation. 

Against  this  sort  of  plunder  of  the  public  the  checks  and  balances 
of  the  courts  have  been  absolutely  unavailing.  In  one  case  in  Chi- 
cago, where  it  was  shown  that  the  street- frontage  consents,  without 
which  no  street  railway  franchise  could  have  been  granted,  were  all 
forged,  the  courts  held  that  the  council  was  the  sole  judge  of  what 
constitutes  valid  consent  and  therefore  the  ordinance  was  good,  al- 
though the  forgery  was  flagrant,  notorious,  and,  the  names  being 
written  in  the  same  handwriting,  showed  on  the  surface. 

In  one  great  fight  nothing  but  an  untoward  fear  of  lynching  pre- 
vented a  bought  legislature  from  delivering  the  g'oods. 

Turning  in  vain  to  the  courts,  people  realized  that  there  must  be 
a  popular  check  on  this  sort  of  exploitation,  and  so  the  next  step 
they  adopted  the  referendum,  which,  wherever  installed,  can  be  in- 
voked by  petition  againsTIegislative  acts  and  which,  if  carried,  results 
in  their  nullification. 

THE    RECAMi. 

The  cities  furnished  the  chief  motive  for  another  reversion  to  pure 
democracy.  The  mayor  of  most  cities  occupies  a  position  of  greater 
executive  power  than  any  other  official  in  the  country.    He  is  usually 


DEMOCRACY  AND  EFFICIENCY.  11 

the  acting  head  of  the  police  department  and  as  such  has  under 
his  direct  control  the  granting  of  saloon  licenses  and  the  power  to 
eliminate  or  to  control  and  regulate  the  illicit  business  transacted 
in  the  cities,  the  gambling  houses,  and  the  dives,  and  may  have  much 
to  say.  if  he  chooses  to  say  it,  about  the  parceling  out  the  privileges 
of  pickpockets  and  confidence  operators. 

Civil-service  reform  does  not  touch  him ;  his  executive  acts  are  not 
subject  to  referendum ;  and  if  he  is  elected  and  starts  out  to  see  what 
the  job  can  be  made  to  pay  he  is  established  for  the  term  of  his 
office  in  a  position  to  demoralize  public  service  and  to  levy  tribute 
to  his  heart's  content. 

People  realized  that  the  mayor's  term  under  such  conditions  might 
be  undesirably  long,  and  so  there  arose  a  demand  for  the  right  of 
recall,  which  was  more  and  more  laying  hold  of  the  popular  thought, 
as  a  necessary  means  of  curbing  executive  dishonesty. 

NO  SACRED  CLASS. 

Concerning  the  recall  of  judges,  the  necessity  of  such  public  right 
is  absolutely  clear.  In  so  far  as  they  interpret  the  laws  and  the 
constitution  they  are  lawmakers.  That  they  should  be  held  as  a 
sacred  class,  a  governing  class,  answerable  to  no  one,  is  to  concede 
to  one  branch  of  government  a  right  to  uncontrolled  aesj)otic  power. 
Such  power  is  being  used  to-day  to.  curtail  the  functions  of  the 
correlative  branches. 

THE  INITIATIVE  FUNDAMENTAL. 

Along  this  series  of  democratic  measures,  and  far  more  funda- 
mental than  any  of  the  others,  there  has  sprung  up  the  idea  of  the 
initiative.  Eeferendum  and  recall  are  but  checks  upon  representa- 
tive government — popular  checks  as  opposed  to  constitutional  checks. 
The  initiative,  on  the  other  hand,  repre&enjts  djrect  popular  rule  and 
can  be  so  framed  as  to  do  away  with  fepresenlative  government  in 
certain  specific  cases.  By  the  initiative  a  portion  of  the  people  may, 
by  petition,  place  upon  the  ballot  laws  or  constitutional  amendments, 
which  may  be  passed  by  the  people  directly  and  without  submission 
to  a  legislature.  Ordinarily  the  initiative  provides  that  the  laws 
thus  framed  shall  be  placed  before  the  legislature  and  passed  out  by 
the  legislature  for  the  referendum  vote,  but  recognition  of  the  legis- 
lature is  not  necessarily  involved  in  the  procedure.  The  need  of  the 
initiative  became  apparent  when,  after  years  of  struggle,  people 
find  that  from  some  influence  or  other  their  legislative  bodies  abso- 
lutely refuse  to  put  upon  the  statute  books  laws  that  are  generally 
demanded.  ...  .   _ 

At  the  beginning  I  stated  that  the  great  criticism  of  democratic 
government  was  its  inefficiency  as  compared  with  tyranny  or  even 
with  oligarchy.  This  inefficiency  is  not  inherent  in  democracy,  but  is 
only  part  and  parcel  of  the  tentative  growth  of  democratic  govern- 
ment under  our  system  of  irrelevant  party  rule,  divided  responsi- 
bility and  misrepresentation  and  constitutional  checks  and  balances. 


12  KEMOCKACY  AWD  EFFICIENCY. 

COMMISSION    GOVERNMENT. 

The  cities  are  coming  to  believe  that  they  can  dispense  with  an 
enormous  amount  of  government  machinery,  and  along  the  line  of 
promoting  efficiency  under  democracy  we  find  a  step  taken  in  the 
commission  form  of  government,  where  a  few  men,  each  expert  in 
some  line  of  municipal  housekeeping,  shall  not  only  be  an  executive 
over  his  own  department  but,  together  with  the  others,  shall  form 
the  legislative  body  of  the  municipality.  Here  we  are  approaching 
an  elective  and  a  selective  despotism,  except^ — and  here  is  the  most 
important  feature  of  our  modern  political  evolution — these  men  are 
'  subject  to  the  recall,  their  enactments  to  the  referendum,  and  by  the 
initiative  there  may  be  enacted  laws  in  spit©  of  them,  if  need  be, 
which  they  might  not  wish  to  pass. 

I  have  used  the  illustration  of  the  city  in  describing  these  devices 
because  the  city  furnishes  the  simplest  example  as  well  as  the  excit- 
ing causes  for  change  toward  simplification.  In  California  it  has 
begun  to  be  applied  to  county  government,  and  we  may  not  be  sur- 
prised to  soon  see  the  principle  applied  to  State  government. 

GENUINE   DEMOCRACY    IS    EJ^ICIENT. 

There  is  no  reason  why  the  Government  should  be  inefficient  in 
carrying  out  its  executive  functions.  This  is  unnecessary  because  it 
is  a  result  of  an  old  system  of  checks  and  balances  so  complicated 
that  it  could  not  work. 

As  far  as  we  can  learn  there  never  has  been  in  our  time  a  great 
undertaking  handled  with  less  waste  or  with  as  much  regard  to  the 
welfare  of  the  public  and  the  employees  as  the  Panama  Canal.  Peo- 
ple loosely  say  that  this  is  being  done  in  contravention  to  the  theo- 
ries of  democracy.  Nothing  could  be  more  absurd.  There  is  not  a 
voter  in  this  country  who  would  recall  the  present  heads,  either  of  the 
engineering  or  the  sanitary  work  on  the  Isthmus,  if  he  had  a  chance. 
Both  these  men  hold  their  positions  under  a  President  elected  by  the 
people  a;nd  who,  if  our  theories  were  carried  out,  would  be  subject  to 
recall  for  any  unremedied  abuses  by  his  subordinates. 

The  whole  modern  theory  of  government  is  that  we  must  shorten 

the  ballot  as  much  as  possible,  provide  a  minimum  of  elective  and  a 

y  maximum  of  appointive  offices,  place  great  power  and  great  responsi- 

/    bilities  in  the  hands  of  a  few,  and  then  control  them  by  direct  popular 

^"^-^^ction. 

THE  CAUSE  OF  DEMOCRATIC  INEFFICIENCY. 

The  old  constitutional  checks  and  balances  have  but  worked  for 
inefficiency.  The  old  idea  of  Judicial  precedent  can  not  possibly  be 
induced  to  fit  changing  conditions  of  modern  life.  The  old  system 
of  representative  rule  working  through  the  theory  of  government 
by  a  majority  of  a  majority  uT  HHWliiJTii  iij  has  fallen  down  and  fallen 
,  apart.*^t  has  arrived  not  at  majority  rule,  but  at  a  nefarious  system 
of  rule  oy  powerful  and  dictatorial  minorities  that  most  of  all  need 
money  for  success  and  are  prepared  to  reciprocate  in  terms  of  special 
privilege,  and  so  on  around  and  around  in  an  unending  circle  of  cor- 
ruption and  privilege. 


DEMOCRACY  AND  EFFICIENCY.  13 

No  one  experienced  in  politics  but  that  knows  and  realizes  the  ^ 
hunger  of  people  for  leadership.  The  man  who  will  throw  up  his 
hat  and  say  "  Come  on "  will  be  followed  by  some  one  whatever 
direction  he  may  take.  Under  direct  democratic  action  he  must 
seek  out  the  individual  voter;  must  show  his  argument  and  ask  for 
support  to  accomplish  a  given  thing.  Under  the  old  representative 
system  he  could  do  his  work  through  uninstructed  delegates,  stuffed 
caucuses,  and  bought  conventions.  Under  the  schemes  of  direct 
democratic  government  a  leader  may  be  just  as  wrong  in  head  oi 
heart  as  was  the  boss,  but  he  must  do  his  work  in  the  light  of  day 
and  subject  to  the  analysis  of  all  men  who  choose  to  think. 

The  hope  of  democracy  rests  in  the  prospect  of  its  being  made 
democratic,  in  the  hope  of  the  right  of  suffrage  being  applied  directly 
to  men  and  to  measures. 

Before  my  remarks  are  closed  there  is  one  matter  of  vital  import 
which  must  be  placed  before  you  in  few  words,  and  that  is  this: 
That  democracy  being  the  highest  social  evolution,  being  the  legiti- 
mate fruit  of  thousands  of  years  of  struggle,  suffering,  of  blood  and 
tears,  is  not  the  possession  of  inferior  peoples,  is  not  possible  to  the 
undeveloped.  It  represents  the  schooling,  the  self-control  that  can 
only  come  as  an  inheritance  of  ages. 

/  The  kind  of  democracy  that  we  preach,  that  we  believe  in,  that 
[we  hope  to  practice,  can  only  be  applied  by  those  fitted  by  education, 
by  temperament,  and  by  heredity  to  exercise  the  functions  of  gov- 
ernment temperately  and  calmly  in  the  interests  of  all.  / 

The  attempt  to  apply  our  ideals  to  unformed  peoples  prone  to 
superstition  and  hysteria  would  be  but  to  wreck  them — to  belittle  the 
message  of  democracy. 

We  in  America  have  thus  far  fostered  and  maintained  a  popu- 
lation wliich  is  capable  of  exercising  the  functions  of  self-govern- 
ment. There  has  been,  it  is  true,  a  terrible  breakdown  in  the  attempt 
to  apply  democratic  rule  under  reconstruction  in  the  South,  where  a 
race  incapable  of  self-government  became,  by  the  exigencies  of  war, 
by  short-sighted  opportunism,  a  part  of  the  electorate.  This  awful 
failure  only  emphasizes  the  point  I  am  urging.  We,  the  people  of 
the  United  States,  at  the  present  time  are,  as  an  average,  of  a  sort  s 
that  is  fit  and  capable  of  governing  ourselves  if  free  from  alien 
troubles,  if  free  from  hostilities  of  race  prejudice,  whether  such 
prejudice  arise  from  a  sense  of  race  inferiority  or  not;  if  free  from 
such  handicaps,  we  can  work  out  our  problems  in  spite  of  our  own  sel- 
fishness, our  own  greed,  our  own  short-sightedness,  but  we  can  not 
possibly  solve  these  problems  when  confronted  with  racial  prejudice 
and  racial  differences.  All  this,  however,  is  another  story  and  is 
merely  mentioned  here  as  a  necessary  corrollary  to  the  discourse 
preceding. 

The  great  religious  reformation  was  an  attempt  to  do  away  with 
the  machinery  between  man  and  his  God.  The  modern  reformation 
of  the  United  States  is  an  attempt  to  eliminate  the  parasitic  middle- 
man from  between  the  voter  and  his  candidate  or  his  laws. 

William  Kent.  , 

o 


D^  TE 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 

Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


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General  Library 

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